The document discusses emerging trends and innovations in gaming, including the impact of AI, gamification, and the evolution of player interactions in both digital and physical spaces. It highlights the challenges faced by developers in standing out in a democratized content landscape, as well as the need for deeper immersion and the balance between lighter games and complex experiences. Additionally, the document emphasizes the importance of understanding audience engagement and maintaining successful monetization models amidst evolving technology and player identities.

1. How New Tech Is
Innovating Gaming
Experiences
Starr Long
Executive Producer
Portalarium

3. Top Gaming Trends:
Blurring Boundaries
• Play Anywhere !
• Gamification proliferation!
• Deeper Immersion and Lighter Games !
• Distribution / Developer Democratization!
• Monetization Models and Price Erosion

4. Top Gaming Trends:
Blurring Boundaries
• AI: Machine Learning !
• Mashups: Digital + Physical + UGC + Makers !
• Interface/Display Proliferation & Evolution!
• New Cognitive Abilities!
• Digital Societies: Multiple Meaningful
Identities

5. Play Anywhere:
Any Device, Any Location

6. Play Everywhere:
Now What?
• How do you keep people in real space
while engaging them in virtual space?!
• How do you leverage co-play since users
are rarely alone?!
• How do you reconcile negative
perceptions of non-engagement with
others?

7. Gamification
Proliferation

8. World Gamified:
Now What?
• How do you keep extrinsic rewards
meaningful?!
• How do you keep users positive on
games after getting bad gamification?!
• How can you leverage gamification for
good?

9. Deeper Immersion
& Lighter Games

10. Deeper & Lighter:
Now What?
• How do you engage users at wildly
different levels of immersion in same
game world?!
• How can you leverage lighter while still
providing deep immersion?!
• How can you “graduate” lighter users?

11. Distribution / Developer
Democratization

12. Everyone Makes:
Now What?
• How can you stand out in the mass of
content?!
• What is role of retail? Can retail become
more showroom / arcade than shelf space
(ala Apple Store)?!
• How do you leverage collaborative
production and consumption (crowd
funding, crowd sourcing, etc.)?

13. Monetization Models
& Price Erosion
0
30
60
90
120
1992 1997 2002 2007 2012
Dev/Mktg Costs (in M)
Average Price Points/User

14. Everything’s Free:
Now What?
• If success is basically a lottery how do
you win?!
• How do you keep free to play from
devolving to optimizing money flow vs.
making compelling games?!
• How can you reduce production costs on
deep immersion experiences?

15. Artificial Intelligence:
Machine Learning

16. Games Can Learn:
Now What?
• How can you leverage this for deeper
experiences?!
• How can you blur the lines of what is a
player vs. a bot?!
• How can you use this to make every
game session different?

17. Mashups & Crossovers:
Digital + Physical + User Generated Content +
Maker Platforms

18. Mashed Up Makers:
Now What?
• How do you engage Generation Maker?!
• How can you create crossover with digital
and physical?!
• How do you balance designed
experiences with UGC?

19. Interface / Display:
Proliferation & Evolution

20. Interface Explosion:
Now What?
• How do you combine immersive
projection with new interface options?!
• How can wearable tech augment game
experiences?!
• How much stimulus and output can a
user manage?

21. New Cognitive Abilities

22. Thinking Expands:
Now What?
• How can you keep building upon these
new abilities to continue creating new
experiences?!
• How far can this go?!
• Is this only a niche opportunity?

23. Digital Societies &
Multiple Meaningful Identities

24. Gamers Are Multiple:
Now What?
• How do you support multiple identities
as gaming opportunities?!
• How can you better support crossovers
between digital and physical gaming
identities (cosplay + avatars)?!
• Can digital identity take precedence over
physical identity?

25. Starr’s Design
Principles
• Play Games!
• Make Something “you” want!
• Gameplay First: Define your game / compulsion loop
and worry about rest after!
• Understand and build for your audience(s)!
• Intrinsic Rewards ≥ Extrinsic Rewards!
• Creation of fun should be fun!
• Iterate and Fail Fast!
• Evolution ≥ Revolution (Old is New)

26. Questions
• What makes for success? What makes a great game?!
• Is old new? If most game mechanics are fundamental
what is innovation?!
• If change is the only constant then how do you keep
from always getting reset? How do you manage the
risk of your career when everything is in flux?!
• If everyone can make then what does it mean to be a
maker?

27. Now is a great time to be
a game maker
• New opportunities for new kinds of
games & mechanics!
• New tech & new social forms enable this!
• We can enable new kinds of fun & new
kinds of businesses

29. Contact Info
Starr Long!
Executive Producer!
Portalarium / Stellar Effect!
slong@portalarium.com!
stellareffect.com!
shroudoftheavatar.com!